Software Asset Management (SAM) ReviewGiven the increasing importance of the software
resource where associated expenditures generally increase in-line with
rapidly growing IT infrastructures, it therefore follows that Software
Asset Management (SAM) is now a key task within any organization, but
especially the larger business. However the role of SAM has not necessarily
been clearly defined within organizations, often either fulfilled on
a part-time basis by either the centralized procurement or specialized
IT departments. Inevitably procurement personnel don't necessarily understand
how the software should be deployed, while the IT personnel don't necessarily
have the requisite negotiation or commercial contractual skills to secure
a solid and cost efficient software price. Therefore historically and
even as of today, many organizations could be paying far too much for
their software and often find themselves subject to
"Software Stiffing" scenarios...

Software expenditure has increased from ~10% of the overall IT expenditure
in the early 1990's to ~40%+ as of today. Without a SAM function it
becomes impossible to identify "shelfware", paying for products that
are not used, or indeed identify low use products or products where
functionality has now been superseded, or is now included in base products
(E.g. RDBMS, Operating System, Etc.). Equally from a polarized viewpoint,
there is a need to safeguard that deployed software is actually being
paid for as per the legal guidelines outlined by bodies such as
The Federation Against Software Theft (FAST).

Value-4IT have considerable skills both technical and commercial that
provide a platform for practicable SAM delivery and have considerably
reduced software expenditure for many of our customers. From a simplistic
viewpoint a SAM process is based upon the following:

The "Discovery" phase facilitated by the inventory
process is pivotal for establishing the possibilities for reducing and
controlling software expenditure costs. It is also important to note
that software costs can be controlled without the requirement for product
displacement by conversion, which should always be a last resort when
observing the Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS) methodology, as per:

In conclusion, the strategic and value-added
software supplier will be focussed on maintaining their client relationships
and so will not necessarily be phased by their client wanting to renegotiate
contracts. Ultimately SAM outputs provide the client with the requisite
information to have an informed pricing discussion with their suppliers...